PROJECT LOVE Nonprofit hosts prom drive, aims to empower women. A-4
NEWS: Animal Welfare League promotes adoption of older, extra-care cats. A-3
The Gazette GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE
SPORTS: Avalon football welcomes two fifth-year senior transfer students. B-1
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
25 cents
A day at the third-grade opera USG graduates’ careers taking cues from life
Gaithersburg class teaches through project n
BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
Harness the Stars Kids Opera Company, better known to Stedwick Elementary School as Mary Ruth McGinn’s thirdgrade class, showed that hard work and making mistakes pays off as they presented their original production “Strike ‘n Spare” last week. “Failure can change your life, making mistakes is a good thing,” the group sang at the end of the opera. “I learned from my mistakes, I pushed through the wall, now I am free.” McGinn’s class spent all year writing, composing and producing the opera as well as building the sets, designing the logo and doing everything else needed to present a finished product to their peers, parents and guests at the end of the school year. This was the tenth opera that McGinn has put together with different classes after starting this specific project-based learning model with a colleague at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring in 2001. Since then she has taught the model to teach-
See OPERA, Page A-10
One student takes on nursing, another pursues social work n
BY
STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Jackeline Andino (left), Taliyah Smith, 8, and Janoah Lavodrama, 8, rehearse their final number during Harness the Stars Kids Opera Company’s “Strike ‘n Spare” on Thursday in Gaithersburg, Harness the Stars Kids Opera Company is comprised of Stedwick Elementary School third-grade students.
Police and families remember their own n
Fallen heroes honored at annual ceremony
BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Judy Talbert (center), wife of Officer William Talbert, who died in the line of duty on Jan. 27, 2012, wipes a tear from her eye May 6 at the end of the Fallen Heroes Memorial Service at the Montgomery County Public Safety Memorial in Gaithersburg. At right is Paul Sterling, who was Talbert’s partner. At left is Officer Barbara Natoli, who is peer support liaison for the Talbert family.
Families and fellow officers had a chance to honor law enforcement personnel who have died in the line of duty at the county police department’s annual Fallen Heroes Memorial Service on May 6 at the Public Safety Headquarters building in Gaithersburg. The ceremony honored 19
members of the Department of Police, Sheriff’s Office and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission who have died since 1928 from job-related injuries or illnesses. “The importance of this service is to let the families of our fallen know that their family members will never be forgotten,” said Officer Barbara Natoli in an email. Natoli, who serves in the First District based in Gaithersburg, is one of a team of officers
See OFFICERS, Page A-10
Dash through Seneca Creek for Duchenne n
Local organization hosts first 5K, family fun day
BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
On Saturday Team Saij will host its first ever Dash for Duchenne 5K run/walk and family fun day at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg. The event will start at 8 a.m. and all proceeds will go to fund research for those with
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LINDSAY A. POWERS
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association website, is a “genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness.” Team Saij was founded by Vicky Singh in 2011 for her 12-year-old son Saij who suffers from DMD. Saij is in sixth grade at Hoover Middle School in Rockville. “After being angry and upset we decided we wanted to
contribute in a way that would benefit all these boys,” Singh said. Symptoms begin to show in early childhood and while it can affect females in rare cases, it primarily affects males. “This is why I started this organization, it’s quite a devastating condition and the boys have very compromised lives,” Singh said. The Singh family moved to Maryland from New York in 2010 and have maintained a
presence up north with various fundraisers over the past few years. This will be Team Saij’s third event in Maryland since 2012. The organization has hosted a silent auction as well as a “bowl-a-thon,” which drew more than 500 people. Singh said that she was trying to figure out a community event that the children would like and have a good time with and decided the 5K followed by
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HARMONIOUS LILIES
See 5K, Page A-10
The Universities at Shady Grove’s largest graduating class includes two students whose career goals arose unforeseen from life’s twists and turns. Staff Sgt. Martin Mann of Gaithersburg and Desiree Colvin of California, Md., are graduating from university programs hosted at the Shady Grove campus, stepping into or nearing careers that serve people they can relate to. The campus held a celebration on Thursday for 784 undergraduate students and 40 pharmacy students who are receiving degrees from University System of Maryland schools. Mann recently shared his story at an event honoring William E. “Brit” Kirwan, the outgoing chancellor of the University System of Maryland. Mann ends his time at Shady Grove after working on a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. For Mann, 30, the degree is another step toward joining a
field in which he can help fellow veterans and others through a range of roles. Though he started community college years ago with psychology on his mind, Mann left school to join the Army in 2003. His first deployment took him to Iraq in 2006 to serve as a combat medic. After returning home, he entered an Army nursing program, looking to build on his medical knowledge. His trajectory began to shift toward social work with the help of a psychology professor at Montgomery College, where Mann was pursuing an associate degree. He was looking to help his fellow veterans, a goal the professor told him could be better accomplished in social work. Mann said he sees himself taking on different roles in social work, from case manager to therapist to researcher. “I have a passion for all of those things as it relates to veterans, and not just veterans, but everyone,” he said. After beginning his studies at the Shady Grove campus to follow the new route, Mann was deployed once again to Afghanistan in 2012. He returned with the help of the campus’ staff to finish his studies. He will be the first in his family to earn a bach-
See GRADUATES, Page A-10
Gaithersburg Book Festival tells stories with county twists n
BY
Authors attending from near, far
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
On Saturday, the sixth annual Gaithersburg Book Festival will host authors from around the world as well as those who have strong ties to Montgomery County. Lariann Oberlin, who writes fiction under the pen name Lauren Monroe, will be exhibiting and selling books at the festival with the Eastern Shore Writers Association. Oberlin, a licensed clinical counselor, has a private practice in the Kentlands where she and her family lived until 2012 when they moved to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. After spending years writing nonfiction books related to her field, she took the plunge into fiction and her first book, “Letting Go: Book
One of The Maryland Shores,” was released last spring. “Second Chances: Book Two of The Maryland Shores” came out this year. “I had always wanted to try fiction. I tried it in the ’90s, but I can see now that I didn’t have the confidence and probably didn’t have the life experience,” Oberlin said, explaining that the non-fiction topics she covers are heavy and serious and she was ready for something different. “I was driving to work one day on the beltway, so you think a lot,” Oberlin said, recalling that she was going through the errands she had to run back at the Kentlands when she thought, “I really miss this place, my characters need a place like this.” With that thought, Oberlin decided to set her books in a community like the Kentlands. Rather than setting the story in the heart of Montgomery County,
See BOOK, Page A-10
Volume 28, No. 19 Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
Boxcar Lilies return to BlackRock with new music, old favorites.
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